Cracked Tooth

If you’re like most Americans suffering with a cracked tooth, you more than likely experience a sharp pain whenever chewing or biting. Most of the time, it quickly disappears and you more than likely ignore it. Then the pain starts to become a little more frequent and you start making adjustments. You only chew on a certain side of the mouth, you try and avoid certain types of food, and so on. If you’ve experienced one or more of these symptoms, chances are you’ve got a cracked tooth.

Many patients who come in with a cracked tooth often ask “What caused this?”. There are often times one or more factors that cause cracking:
• Brittle teeth • Exposure of enamel to alternating hot and cold temperatures
• Level of stress one is experiencing in life • Bruxism • Uneven chewing • Trauma
• Chewing on items like hard candy or ice

You also might be wondering, “Why in the world does this little crack hurt so much?”. Your cracked tooth may be causing you pain because there is a small open crevasse in your tooth, letting bacteria or items like cold/hot water into the open space. This can be exaggerated when your bite is released, resulting in often times a sharp pain.
This tiny crack is in fact microscopic, but when it is opened up, at all, the sensitivity and irritation can often times be extremely overwhelming. Especially for those who’ve not experienced sharp pain in the mouth before.

Sometimes teeth can develop cracks and when not treated this can have serious consequences for your oral health, Cracks can come from injury or large filings that can drastically weaken the rest of the tooth. Even small cracks can allow bacteria into the tooth causing decay or in such in leading to further distraction a cracked tooth may or may not be sensitive to hot and cold or be painful and biting or chewing cracks that progressed too far can result in entire sections of the tooth breaking off and in some cases loss of the tooth entirely.